by Wyatt Kane
A representation of Dinah’s exquisite face filled the holographic image that Ty’s device projected. He held his arm so both of them could see clearly.
“What’s happening?” Tempest asked.
Despite still intermittently sucking on her lollipop, Dinah was all business. “The building is yet to be breached. Cameras all around show furtive movement. I count maybe forty, all armed and armored like Bain’s men. They are getting ready to attack.”
Ty gave Tempest a quizzical look. She grinned at him. “There are cameras all around the building. My father’s efforts. He didn’t want anyone to be able to sneak up on us.”
Ty nodded. His heart was already pounding with fear mixed with excitement. “What’s the plan?” he repeated.
“They are preparing to storm the building. Expecting to find us somewhere within. So I vote we outflank them. Come at them from behind, and hit them with everything we have. How does that sound?”
Ty found himself grinning. “Works for me,” he said.
9: The Battle Begins
“Dinah, it might be a good idea to call the police,” Tempest said. The holographic image of the deerkin nodded, then disappeared.
Tempest turned to Ty. “Are you ready for this?” she asked.
Even though all he’d done so far was hurry to Tempest’s bedroom and back, Ty was breathing hard. He was focused and felt angry that anyone would seek to attack Tempest’s home. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Ready,” he said.
She gave him a sardonic look. “When this is done, we have to move my device back to my wrist.”
Ty grinned. “Will do,” he said.
Together, they walked back out through the main door, then Tempest stepped in close to Ty, much as Lilith had done, and wrapped her arms around him. An instant later they were flying through the air.
Ty had learned over the past few days that flying with Tempest was one of life’s great pleasures. He knew in his heart that if flight had been one of the skills his device had given him, he would have done little else. He could imagine drifting about in the clouds, spending his days traveling around the globe, moving about like a leaf blown in the wind.
To him, it was akin to ultimate freedom. If he could fly, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Not his crappy job or the apartment with the hole in the wall, nothing.
Yet even as he had the thought, he knew it to be no more than a passing fantasy. The life he had discovered with Dinah and Tempest was not something he would ever give up.
Maybe one day, hopefully soon, he would sit down in the Architect’s workshop and figure out how to give himself the ability to fly. But when he did, he would use it not to travel the world, but to be more of a superhero at Tempest and Dinah’s side.
Unbidden, the dream he’d had several days before came back to him. He was flying, a blue nimbus of power all around him, with dozens of superheroes to his left and right. In his dream, he and the others had formed a ring of protection around the whole world. They were superheroes in the truest sense of the word, defenders of justice and the downtrodden. To Ty, it was a shining vision of a possible future, and even then, even with so much to do to bring it about, Ty found it compelling.
They would be the comic book heroes of a new golden age. And the world would be a far better place.
In far too short a time, Tempest touched down the roof of a low building no more than a hundred yards away from the one she called home. From there, they could see the entire front of their building and some distance down one side. Ty looked as hard as he could, but down at this level, it was already very dark. There were few neon signs in this part of the city, and what streetlights there were refused to illuminate much more than shadows.
“I can’t see anyone,” Ty whispered. He felt Tempest nod in response, but the blonde superhero said nothing. “Are we sure they are there?”
“The cameras work in very low light. But that doesn’t mean we have to. Call her,” Tempest said.
As quickly as he could, Ty touched the controls on his device and brought up the communication screen. Seconds later, Dinah’s exquisite face filled the holographic image. Before the deerkin could say anything, Tempest grabbed Ty’s wrist and spoke into the pickup.
“Light them up,” she said.
“Will do,” Dinah replied, and ended the call.
Within seconds, the entire street was flooded with so much light that it could have been the middle of the day. Ty couldn’t help but wonder at it. He’d been thinking about security for the building ever since they’d found out Bain knew where it was. Surveillance and lighting had featured heavily in his plans, but that was already well under control.
Yet there were still things he could implement that would help.
The street below no longer looked empty. From where Ty and Tempest stood, they could see a number of mercenaries in position, ready to attack. Nor did the lights go unnoticed. It caught the mercenaries off guard.
All of a sudden, they weren’t hidden in shadows, making their way stealthily toward their target. Instead, they are shown in stark relief, two separate columns of men in dark uniforms. They had their blasters out and wore body armor much like that favored by the police.
Yet these men weren’t the police. These were soldiers for hire, and they worked for the Master.
The formerly quiet streets filled with curses as the men realized their approach had been observed. Ty couldn’t help but feel an instant of satisfaction at this small victory. But beyond that, he wasn’t sure what to do.
Heroics of any sort were still foreign to him. He had no concept of tactics and no battle plan. Only his childhood martial arts classes combined with his newfound strength and agility gave him any confidence at all. That, and his shield and blaster.
Tempest wasn’t so hesitant. She launched herself from the roof and hovered over the men below. “You have one chance!” she shouted, looking like an angel in black. “Turn around and leave! Do it now and you will come to no harm! I give you my word!”
Ty could sense the uncertainty of the men even from where he stood on the roof. They had expected this to be a stealth mission. Perhaps they’d anticipated no resistance at all until they reached the penthouse itself. That they had already been spotted was an obvious surprise.
A surprise due entirely, Ty knew, to Lilith’s intervention.
Nevertheless, the men were professionals. Mercenaries. Muscle for hire. What their background and experience might have been, Ty didn’t know. Yet it was clearly military in nature. The confusion lasted only a moment or two before one of their number, perhaps a commander, raised his voice.
“She’s one of them!” he bellowed. “She has a device! Blow her out of the sky!”
With that, many of the men turned their blasters toward Tempest and did their best to turn the words into action.
The air was suddenly filled with concussive detonations. At the sight, Ty’s heart caught in his throat. He was immediately afraid for Tempest’s safety, at the same time as being enraged that anyone would try to hurt her.
However, Tempest was fast and durable. She easily avoided the first barrage of blasts, and would have been proof against them at that distance anyway. But the mercenaries weren’t done.
“Alpha unit, maintain your objective!” came the same, strident voice. “Bravo, keep that bitch off our backs! And where in Hell is Delta? It’s time to see if the demon is all she’s cracked up to be!”
At the man’s words, several things happened at once. One of the teams formed quickly into a defensive circle and kept firing at Tempest, who was buzzing about like a hummingbird around a tub of nectar. The other team ignored their comrades in arms and headed directly for the building. Where Delta team might have been, Ty couldn’t see. But he had a pretty good idea who they were talking about.
Unless there was another demon they were keeping back in reserve, it could only be Lilith.
Ty could see right away that their tactics were good. This was quite a di
fferent area when compared to where Ty kept his apartment. It was far less rundown, with wider streets and fewer dark alleys. It made for fewer hiding places for the mercenaries, but also gave Tempest less to work with.
In a different part of town, she might have picked up a dumpster and used it to hammer at the mercenaries. Or ripped a wheel or two from an abandoned car and used them. But here, there were no dumpsters or abandoned cars. Tempest could do nothing more than dive at them like a crow might dive at a cat before pulling up and speeding away so that she wouldn’t get hit by a stray blast.
Watching it all, Ty became nearly incandescent with rage. He wanted to be down there on the street in the middle of it all. He wanted to help Tempest as best as he could. But the blonde superhero had left him on the roof of the building. From there, even his blaster could do little damage.
Ty cursed under his breath. If he’d been a real superhero, he would have just jumped. But if he did, he would take fall damage, even with his shield. He would break both of his legs and would be useless to anyone.
With no fire escape – the building he was on was too low to need one – Ty’s only option was the downpipe. He studied it suspiciously, knowing before he even tried that it wasn’t built to take his weight. But at least it was steel rather than PVC piping.
He hesitated for a moment and cast a glance back at the conflict. Tempest had changed tactic, aiming instead for the Alpha team, and was doing her best to prevent them from entering the building. Instead of diving at them in an ineffectual way, she approached them at real speed from down low, bringing her arms up as if to protect her head at the last.
Several of the men fired their blasters, and Ty watched with growing fury as at least one of the shots caught Tempest on her arms. He heard her grunt in pain, but her momentum was undiminished. She ploughed into the mercenaries like a wrecking ball, bowling half a dozen of them over before climbing swiftly back into the night.
Two of the men were down screaming. One was a limp mess on the road. But the others were not badly injured and were able to rejoin their line.
Ty felt a moment of pride combined with real worry for Tempest’s safety. He didn’t know how many such blasts she could take. His shield was based on her skill. He knew she could control energy like that from a blaster. But he also knew that the strength of a blaster increased dramatically the smaller the distance.
Could Tempest survive a shot from close range?
Ty didn’t want to find out. With a snarl, he flung himself at the downpipe and gripped it with both hands and feet. For a moment or two, it felt like it would hold. And that was all Ty needed. He shimmied halfway down, then leapt the rest of the way, landing awkwardly on the ground.
10: Player Two Has Entered The Game
Once before, in fact earlier that very day, Ty had faced a similar small army of mercenaries. He and Tempest had been intent on rescuing Dinah at the time, and Ty had been willing to risk much to achieve that goal. Yet he had still been scared. He’d never really been in such a conflict before, especially up against so many armed and dangerous men.
His heart had been pounding and he had been breathing in short, shallow gasps. Ty remembered that his palms had started to sweat, yet his throat and mouth had gone dry.
He had made it through the battle on the back of his concern for Dinah and Tempest, as well as his outrage against Bain. And one other thing.
Ty had likened the conflict to playing a first person shooter. Thinking about it like that, as if it was no more than a game, made it easier. Especially given that his shield was like a cheat code that granted him invulnerability.
He had survived that conflict, as had Tempest and Dinah. Many of the mercenaries, however, hadn’t been so fortunate.
This time would be no different. Except that instead of fear so acute it formed a knot in his stomach, Ty was driven by anger.
How dare these people attack Tempest like that? How dare they approach her home with evil intent?
It was enough that Ty didn’t need to pretend to be in a first person shooter. This time, instead of sweaty palms, he could feel the blood in his face. He was angry, and he intended to take that anger out on these men.
As he approached, he pulled the hood of his mesh suit out from under his collar. It was still active from his confrontation with Lilith, but he wanted to make sure of his own safety. With his hood in place, he dug out his sleeves with the thumb holes and hooked them in place. That done, he knew that his shield covered him completely.
Then he took his blaster from where he’d tucked it into his belt and dialed it up to maximum.
The mercenaries never knew what hit them. Both groups were studying the night sky, striving to see Tempest before she dive-bombed them again. None of them paid the slim, sandy haired young man in the glowing blue nimbus any attention at all.
Until it was too late.
Ty approached to within twenty yards and took aim at Bravo team. He pulled the trigger and watched as an eruption of fiery green plasma leapt from the end of his blaster. It blew into the mercenaries like a gigantic fist, flinging them this way and that.
Ty couldn’t help but think of a bowling alley. He hadn’t exactly scored a strike. More than half of the mercenaries were standing. But he figured he could pick up a spare with little effort.
He aimed and squeezed the trigger a second time, flinging men about like rag dolls caught in a storm.
Ty aimed a third time, but the men in Bravo team unit still standing were quick to react. They flung themselves left and right, out of his range, and Ty had to aim individually.
How many were dead, Ty didn’t know. Likely, most were just hurt. Already, he could hear groans of pain and discomfort. Their armor may not have been as effective as Ty’s, but it did its job well enough for many of them.
Ty would have to get closer to do real damage.
Tempest made good use of the distraction. She swooped down like a hawk and plucked one of the prone men from the ground. Furthering the bowling image still in Ty’s mind, she hurled that man into Alpha team, knocking many of them flying.
More yells and curses filled the air. Ty’s shield flickered once or twice as the remaining mercenaries returned his fire, but to Ty, it was like no more than a gentle breeze. Just as Tempest had found it difficult to find weapons on the wide open streets, the mercenaries now found cover to be scarce. Those who could do so ducked behind streetlamps or around the corner of Tempest’s building. The rest crouched low or used their fallen brothers for cover.
All the while, one of their number was shouting orders, although now he was far less coherent. His orders came out as screeches of rage mixed with a babble of fear and anger from the rest.
Ty felt powerful, invulnerable. This was the type of thing his armor had been built for. Not to protect him from falling, but to save him from blows that might otherwise have killed him. He was like a tank, implacable, invulnerable. He stalked forward like an angry giant and took aim at the few who could still return fire. Yet even then, the mercenaries hadn’t given up.
“Delta unit!” somebody cried out. “Delta unit! Where the hell are you?”
Ty ignored it all. He shot again and again, putting an end to any threat he could see. Tempest had come in to land and was taking on the remnants of Alpha team by the building entrance. To Ty, the conflict seemed at an end. There were fewer than half the mercenaries still upright, and even they were in disarray. Ty was already thinking they had won.
Then Lilith appeared in front of him.
It was so sudden and unexpected that for the briefest moment, Ty didn’t know what to do. It didn’t help that he found her just as impossibly attractive as he did Tempest and Dinah. She was close enough that he could have kissed her simply by leaning forward, and her expression was one that mixed determination with sorrow.
“Sorry,” she said clearly. “But I don’t have a choice.”
Ty had barely a moment to wonder what she was apologizing for. Then she hit him with
some sort of shockwave. It was powerful beyond measure, and even though Ty had tested his shield against the best Tempest could offer and found it more than up to the task, this was different.
Lilith’s blast picked him up and tossed him backward. Ty was a tumbleweed blown in the wind. He rolled and tumbled, his arms and legs flailing, and his blaster knocked out of his grip.
It was uncomfortable and humiliating all at once, yet it could have been worse. Ty’s shield helped to protect him. Instead of grazing the flesh from his elbows and knees, he remained remarkably intact, suffering no more than bruises. Yet he was shaken, and when he came to a halt, it was like his senses were jumbled. It was all he could do to lie crumpled against the wall of the building he had climbed down.
“Ty!” Tempest bellowed.
All at once, Ty’s vision clicked back in. From across the road, he clearly saw Tempest’s expression of horror. She had seen him tumble and fall and feared for his safety. He struggled to raise a hand and tried to shout that he was okay, but Tempest had already fixed her gaze on Lilith.
The demoness was still staring at Ty with an expression of sadness. She had no idea that Tempest was looking her way, or that the blonde superhero’s expression was full of murder.
Ignoring the last of the mercenaries around her as if they were nothing, Tempest launched herself at the demoness, and Ty knew that if they collided, it would be fatal.
All at once he regretted not telling the full story. Tempest didn’t know Lilith had warned him. She didn’t know that the demoness was acting under duress. Nor could Tempest see Lilith’s expression of sorrow mixed with concern.
All Tempest knew was that Lilith had spirited Bain to safety at the end of their earlier battle, and that she had just knocked Ty on his ass. To the blonde superhero, Lilith was no more than a villain, and a dangerous one at that.
“Look out,” Ty managed to say.
It was never going to be enough. He was still too badly shaken. He couldn’t so much as raise more than a whisper. If Lilith had been right beside him, she still wouldn’t have heard his warning.
